Lagavulin 10 Year Old 2005 (cask 200802) – A Rare Find (Gleann Mór)

So, I am back from a wee vacation in Prague (which was awesome! ), A lot of beer and some whisky (and more about that in next week’s posts). Been a while since i wrote a tasting note and it’s time i think…

I know a lot of people reading the blog are fans of Lagavulin, and this is no wonder with excellent OBs available regularly (16, 16 DE, and the yearly release of the 12), which are affordable and very fine malts. It’s however very hard to find IB Lagavulins (there are some, ok), and especially hard to find IBs which are Lagavaulin and state the distillery name on the bottle and not something like (Classic of Islay, or the 10 anniversary bottling for W.Import NL). I was very glad to have gotten a wee sample from this (sold out) bottle from Sjoerd, and it took me some time to actually taste it after coming back from Maltstock.  This was bottled by Gleann Mór the IB, at a nice 60.3% abv, with only 60 bottles in the outrun which is very few, and they must have sold like hot buns.

Lagavulin 10 yo 2005 (cask 200802) – A Rare Find (Gleann Mór) , 58.3% , ,£95 (sold out)

Nose : A very unique and intriguing mix of creamy sweet barley, mescal and brine. Quite coastal and not very surprising –  sweet peat, and some wood smoke. A lovely nose, but feels quite young, not that it’s bad in this case…

Palate : Starts hot and bitter with a lot of pepper and chilly up front then getting smokier and Sweeter with the creamy barley, ash and tar as well and the signature  wood smoke is here big-time. After a while it does get bitter again, with the ashy smoky notes making a comeback.

Finish: Long, bitter sweet vanilla. Mocha and lots of wood smoke. Creamy. Loving it.

This is a very good dram, It certainly is not as complex as some older lagavulins, but the Lagavulin DNA is all over, and the creamy sweet barley on the nose and palate are refreshingly good. Young Lagavulins rock. This is lighter and gentler than the 12 year old monster IMHO. Seek one out, if you can (auction?)

Score: 87/100

Cheers Sjoerd for the sample